Exposure to e-cigarettes in Russia: Results from Russian Tobacco control policy Evaluation study

• Main Author: Marine Gambaryan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: European Publishing 2018-06-01
• Series: Tobacco Prevention and Cessation
• Subjects: E-cigarettes; novel products
• Online Access: http://www.journalssystem.com/tpc/Exposure-to-e-cigarettes-in-Russia-Results-from-Russian-Tobacco-control-policy-Evaluation,90389,0,2.html

Introduction Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems are not regulated at the moment under the current comprehensive Tobacco Control Law in Russia, so the popularity of those as well as their marketing and promotion are increasing. Very little is known about the situation with ENDS in the Country. Aim: To assess the exposure of population to electronic cigarettes in Russia, both active and passive. Methods Data from Russian Tobacco Control Law Monitoring and Evaluation Survey (June – August 2017) were analysed. 11699 randomly selected respondents from 4320 households in 5 Subjects of Russian Federation were interviewed and a stratified sample (n= 5289 aged ≥18 years) of smokers (n= 3228), former smokers (n= 1012) and never smokers (n=1049) participated in the survey. Results 34% of the respondents were familiar with e-cigarettes; 11.9% had tried e-cigarettes, and 25.8% of those were regular users. 69.2% of smokers, who used also e-cigarettes didn’t reduce the amount of smoked tobacco, 44.4% had made a quit attempt by means of e-cigarettes; of those 65.2% failed to quit smoking, and 75.3% could not quit neither smoking nor e-cigarettes for a long term. Only 18,7% e-cigarettes users agreed that e- cigarettes cause addiction, 35.8% - were not sure, and 45.5% even denied the fact. Those were mostly the younger respondents aged 18-24 years (52,3%)- significantly higher than in other age groups (p<0.05). 70% of respondents who were familiar with e-cigs one way or another said that vaping was not allowed in their household. Mostly vaping was allowed at home of the current tobacco smokers (21.8%), compared to quitters in less than 3 years (13,2%) and more than 3 years (7,8%) and in the youngest age group 18-24 (28%) compared to the others. 90.3% said that the vaping is not allowed at the workplace. However vaping in public places is becoming a frequent practice: 64% of the respondents had seen people vaping e-cigs in public places, were smoking is banned: 43,2% had witnessed this several times and 20,8% - even more frequently in the past 30 days. 27.1% of 1827 respondents had witnessed vaping in restaurants and bars, 59.8% of 2006 respondents had been exposed to the vape in public places: 45.9% of those had found it annoying. Conclusions Strong legislation should be considered to regulate the use of ENDS and to protect people from the exposure of those.